What's the Story here? 📰

Approaching your research like a newspaper editor and asking the question, “What’s the story here?” can yield powerful results — whether you’re consulting a work of fiction or the driest academic text.

Stories are an amazing way to understand things. In fact, our brains seem to be hardwired to respond to narratives. As Kieran Egan put it in An Imaginative Approach to Teaching:

“The great power of stories, then, is that they perform two tasks at the same time. They are, first, very effective at communicating information in a memorable form, and, second, they can orient the hearer’s feelings about the information being communicated.”

There are many reasons why stories stick, but we'll focus on two:

• Narratives provide a structure around which we can encode information. 

• Stories use protagonists, which helps us project ourselves into the action, essentially “experiencing” the events ourselves through a process known as mirroring. 

Stories don’t just help us remember — they also help us care. Because we identify with protagonists, stories tell us how to feel about their contents. This is even triggered on a chemical level. When we recognize familiar story patterns, our brains release dopamine. 

Evolutionarily, this “mattering” probably helped our ancestors survive. Today, it’s why narrative media grips us more than dry textbooks.

Novels 📕

How can I find novels/literature about my topic?

Use an LLM

You could ask an AI:

Act as a research librarian with a passionate interest in [your topic]. Are there any examples in literature of stories that revolve around [your topic]?

From this prompt, Andy got a list that included a few books he’d read (The Old Man and the Sea, Life of Pi), and several he hadn’t. Prompting further...

Which of these works or others would be considered most classic? Is there one that provides insightful perspectives about how humans interact with [your topic]?

One result was an early (1858!) children’s adventure novel, The Coral Island. It seemed like an intriguing read, so I added it to my list. I also discovered memoirs — technically nonfiction, but narrative enough to count as “story” sources.

Look for links to your topic in books you're already reading

For Shelley, as she's progressed through her own LiD journey, she's noticed exploration themes pop up in unexpected places. 

For example, I’m currently listening to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (read by Faith Moore on Storytime for Grownups), and the opening is all about an explorer setting out for the North Pole on a quest for knowledge and glory. It echoes so much of what I studied about Shackleton and other polar explorers.

Ask a bookish buddy

We all know at least one voracious reader in our lives (maybe that reader is you!).

As that bookish buddy to think back on the books they've read. Do any involve your topic? Or some aspect of your research question?

One of our students who is studying spices was chatting with his dad about his topic. He was actually searching for a spice-related hero, and Dad immediately said, "Paul Atreides from Dune!" Turns out that one of the central resources in Dune is a spice called melange. This resulted in a whole discussion about the similarities and differences between real-life spices (including the race for spices in the 16th and 17th centuries) and the importance of melange in Dune.

So chat to your bookish buddies about your topic and see what you can uncover. Maybe you don't even choose to read the book, but your buddy can provide you with some interesting insights about a fictional portrayal of your topic.

Share your book recommendations in the Stream

Have you read a book that reminds you of someone else's topic? We'll create a thread where you can share your ideas and book recommendations!

Shelley's and family are currently reading The Bletchley Riddle — a wonderful story that links wonderfully to the topic of "signs, symbols & codes"!

Folktales & Myths 🧝

You might not have the time or inclination to read a whole novel. If that's the case, you might get some story goodness from folktales or myths.

How can I find folktales/myths about my topic?

Myths are essentially ancient micro-stories designed to explain why things are the way they are. They’re short, memorable, and carry cultural meaning.

Prompt to try:

Act as a folklorist with a passionate interest in [your topic]. Are there any myths or folktales that prominently feature [your topic]?

Here are some examples from my topic of coral:

• Greek: Medusa’s blood turning seaweed into red coral.

• Pacific Islands: Hawaiian story of Hina creating pink coral from her blood; Polynesian tales of Māui and reefs.

• Aboriginal Australian: Bhiral’s battle forming the Great Barrier Reef.

• Asian: Chinese legend of coral as dragon eggs; Japanese tales linking coral with dragon spirits.

• Persian: Sea princess’s tears becoming black coral.

These short snippets can feel sparse, so you can use AI to re-expand them into fuller stories:

Acting as a folklorist, could you take one of these myths and retell it as a short, engaging story that highlights its thematic connection with coral?

Here’s an example with Perseus and Medusa, where coral is born from Medusa’s blood — cleverly linking coral’s stony nature with her petrifying glare.

Perseus and Medusa:

Perseus, a demigod hero and son of Zeus, was tasked with slaying Medusa. Medusa was once a maiden but was transformed into a gorgon with snakes for hair, and a gaze that turned onlookers to stone.

Medusa’s Decapitation:

With the help of divine gifts (including a reflective shield from the goddess Athena and a sword from the god Hermes), Perseus succeeded in cutting off Medusa’s head without meeting her eyes.

The Hero’s Journey Continues:

After defeating Medusa, Perseus carried her severed head in a special pouch. He then traveled northward, encountering various adventures along the way, eventually stopping briefly along the seashore.

Spilling of the Gorgon’s Blood:

According to the myth, Perseus placed Medusa’s head on a bed of seaweed while he paused to wash or rest. The blood from Medusa’s head dripped onto the plant life below.

Coral Formation:

The potent magic within Medusa’s blood transformed the seaweed into vibrant, reddish, stone-like branches. This, Greek mythology says, is how coral came into existence. From that point on, any twig or branch that touched Medusa’s blood under the sea would harden and retain a splendid red hue.

Movies & Series 🎬

Sometimes fiction comes alive most powerfully on screen. A great example: in our family’s LiD Quest on plants in space, we watched The Martian. Matt Damon’s character grows potatoes on Mars — a quirky, fictional twist on the very real challenges of space farming. My boys just enjoyed the story; I took notes to later “fact check” the science. Even though it’s science fiction, it gave us a fun lens for thinking about our real topics.

💡 Tip: When watching movies or series, ask yourself: What part of this is realistic? What part is exaggerated? What does it reveal about how people imagine my topic?

Keep track of your learning

It’s easy to just get swept up in a good story (and that’s part of the point!). But if you want to carry those insights into your LiD project, give a little thought to how you’ll capture them.

• Jot down key takeaways in your Logbook right after you finish a movie or episode.

• Highlight sections of a book you're reading. If you're on an e-book, this is easy (and you can review all your highlights later). If you have a physical book, mark it up with a highlighter (if you are allowed to!) or use those sticky note flags.

• Write down quotes that stood out, or describe a moment that really resonated with your topic.

• For movies and series, note a couple of “fact check” questions you’d like to explore later.

• Keep asking: What’s the story here? How does this connect to my topic?